I don't have first-hand experience on either of the coasts, but I was a CS major at a state school in the Midwest at the time and my impression now, working as

I don't have first-hand experience on either of the coasts, but I was a CS major at a state school in the Midwest at the time and my impression now, working as a programmer, still in the Midwest, isn't much different from what it was then. People are slightly more aware of what I do now -- not all of them think I fix computers, anymore -- but they consistently think I make less than I do, for example, and it carries zero prestige here. A very good friend just started working as an optometrist and all of our acquaintances are much more impressed by that and assume he is much more well off, which isn't really true, especially given his debt load and opportunity cost over the last 8 years. That said, my company has an office in Mountain View and when I'm there (a couple times a year) the feeling is completely different. If you go out on Castro St, people at bars just assume you work in tech and are comfortable chatting about your work. It's obviously not like that in Missouri. Edit: I feel like I should point out that there is a startup culture here now and it's growing. There was nothing like that in 2003, so it's not exactly the same.